The Last Laugh
by KellytheKid
Summary: "HAHAHA!" her laugh echoed through the valley. Naruto looked stunned as the water showed him her real face. "You should put up a smile!" she shouted "Otherwise I will do it!". She charged at him with a wicked smile, a kunai in her right hand while the infamous red chakra appeared from her left hand. "I don't want to fight you!" he screamed back. DISCONTINUED
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything :(**

 **Prologue**

* * *

"But Sakura-chan." Our favorite blonde idiot wined.

"No, is no, Naruto. Besides didn't Tsunade-shishou threw you out of the window already?"

Naruto flinched as the event popped up in his mind again.

 _Flashback_

"Granny, I demand to join the mission!" I shouted at her as I opened or rather stormed through the door.

"I take it that you mean your teammates' mission." She said as she was signing multiple records.

"Teammate _s_?" I asked confused.

"Yes, teammate **s**. Sai is joining her on the mission." I walked up towards her desk and slammed my hand on it. "And why is it that I can't join them?!" I practically screamed.

Her pen suddenly snapped as she looked me right in the eyes. "Sakura can handle herself. Besides you were greatly injured on your last mission."

I slammed my other hand on the table as I remembered Hidan and Kakazu. "So why don't you send out Shizune, instead of her?"

"Because she is already part of the mission." She spat in my face.

"But…" I was unable to finish my argument as an office chair hit my face. I stumbled back and hit the window.

"Just believe in her alright." And with that she flicked her finger against my forehead and I flew out of the window.

 _Flashback end_

"Don't worry about me," she reassured " it's just a simple mission. We only need to help Suna with their hospital and take some supplies back. It won't take longer than a week and a half"

"Yes, but what if you need to let your anger out." I tried to convince her.

"That's where Sai comes in," she stopped and turned around " speak of the devil, he's already walking towards us."

"Yo Ugly and Dickless" he greeted us so casually that I couldn't help but flinch again.

"It seems thar you guys are already getting used to my nicknames."

"No Sai, we will never get used to it." I reassured him.

Totally ignoring me, he whispered something into Sakura's ear.

"You have to be kidding me." She semi-shouted out. She turned her attention towards me and said: "Sorry, but Shizune is already waiting at the gate. I need to go now."

She turned around and leaped towards the nearest rooftop.

"Goodbye Sakura-chan!" I screamed after her.

She turned her head towards me and screamed back: " No goodbye, but see you later. You know we promised each other 'to always return home.'"

 _Flashback_

I was walking out of the gate as I heard somebody walking towards me. I turned around and saw my exhausted teammate running towards me.

"Go kid, I will be waiting." Jiraiya said.

I watched as he walked on and my teammate closing in on me.

"Naruto, wait!" She screamed from a distance.

"Hey there Sakura-chan, what brings you here?"

"I wanted to say goodbye" She began as she caught her breath "and to talk to you about something."

"What do you want to talk about then?"

"I have two things to say. First," she breathed deep in and gave me a determined look "if you're leaving to train you better be a lot stronger, cause otherwise what would be the fun of catching up with you guys?"

I laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of my head "You better watch out. Cause when I'm back, I will be able to do the bell-test again and defeat Kakashi-sensei together with you."

She smiled at me and continued on "Secondly, promise me to always return home." She suddenly embraced me into a hug and whispered softly "Don't leave me like…"

I hugged back and shushed her as I calmed her down.

"Brat, are you coming or not. I'm about to leave." My white haired pervert screamed as he lost his patience.

I grunted and released the hug "Seems it's time for me to go."

I began to walk away as she shouted for the last time "Goodbye!"

I turned my head towards her and shouted back: "No goodbye, but see you later."

 _Flashback end_

Nostalgia overwhelmed me as I watched he jump away towards the gate.

* * *

 **What do you think?**

 **This fic is inspired by another story that I red, it wasn't that long but it had a good potential into becoming something more. Sadly enough it didn't continue on for more than a few chapters:(**

 **I will mention the story sometime in another chapter, as I don't want to spoil anything.**

 **Next chapter: Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 1

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei." His student said as he jumped through the window.

"Seems my student is picking up on my habits. What's next? Tardiness?"

"Really funny sensei." Naruto huffed. He walked towards his bed, picking a chair along the way to sit on.

Kakashi sighed and sat up with a grunt "Are you here to break me out of this damn place?"

"Sorry, but you know what will happen if I break you out of the hospital," he said followed by a soft "again."

"I get it. My other student would probably have a new punch-distance record then."

The blonde let out a small laugh and said: "Nah, it would be the old hag. Sakura-chan is now on a mission."

His sensei nodded understandingly "Oh yeah, I forgot it has been 10 days hasn't it."

Naruto let out a small smile "I already asked, she said that these kinds of mission normally take longer than planed."

"Cheer up, I don't like seeing you like that. Besides do you know how much longer I will be stuck here."

The door suddenly opened and a woman walked in. "Probably another week or two. It really took a toll that fight of yours."

Kakashi let a deep grunt out as he lied down again. "Can't you tweak it a little bit, after all you're the Hokage."

"Forget about it, I'm foremost a medic secondly the Hokage."

"Good one, Tsunade."

Said woman turned towards the speaker and a vein popped up on her forehead. "Don't laugh you idiot. I'm not that old that I couldn't hear you calling me an _old hag_."

Naruto sweat dropped as he watched a very annoyed woman walking towards him.

One second he was standing there the next second a new window was made directly on his place.

"What a waste, you didn't break her record." Kakshi laughed out.

Somewhere 380 meters away a beaten up figure crawled out of his small crater. "Just another 7 meters before…" and then he passed out.

 **Minutes passed before somebody walked by.** "Who's that poke-animal? I mean."

He walked towards it following the path of destruction it left.

Once he reached the 'animal' he kneeled down and began to dig him up "It's an orange mole." As he sighed on more and more came visible "No, it's just a Naruto."

He stood up and walked away before he stopped and turned around "Wait a second, _a Naruto_?...Naruto!"

He ran back and used an earth justu to dig him up.

Once the injured man was lying on the ground. The man kneeled down and observed his wounds as he started to bandage him.

Minutes later the blonde left out a soft grunt as he opened his eyes again. He sat up and looked around when he spotted a sitting man "Captain Yamato? What happened?"

Yamato looked up from his siting position said: "I hoped you could tell me. I was just passing by when I found you passed out in a hole."

The memories came flooding back as he tried to remember "Thanks man, I think I shouldn't call the Hokage an old hag anymore, should I?"

The wood-user sweat dropped and stared in the direction towards the hospital. His eyebrow rose up as he saw a new window getting installed.

"Did she…?"

"Nope she didn't." Naruto reassured him "Just another seven meters before she drawed with her."

"I'm not sure what's normal for you guys but I don't think this is a healthy hobby of yours."

But his blessing wasn't heard as the man was already gone.

 **Somewhere on the other side of the village.** "Troublesome."

" 'Troublesome' is that all that you've to say. He's literally getting used as death weight in that stupid contest of them." His blond teammate complained.

"Look at the bright side Ino. You aren't paired up with them. Besides it isn't only _one_ of your teammates, they are also using Neji, Kiba and Shino for this one." Tenten looked at Hinata as her Byakugan was activated, focused on the road ahead of them.

"W-w-we need to get out of here. T-t-they are already at the park."

Sighing they all jumped into the nearest tree, waiting for the two idiots and their 'voluntary' sidekicks.

In the far horizon two green blurs arose from the horizon. Both carrying at least an hundred kilos on them.

They both stormed down the road. As they passed the tree, they both suddenly wore a face yelling 'horror'.

Simultaneously they let a loud yelp, when thy both tripped over an hidden tripwire. They both fell flat on their faces as they let go of their cargo.

"Are you guys alright?" Ino asked as she jumped out of the tree.

"That was utterly un-youthful letting us trip like that."

"I agree with Gai-sensei that was utterly unacceptable of you guys." Lee claimed.

"Argh, shut it Lee. You guys were carrying those guys on your back for at least a whole hour. They are beat." Tenten countered as she too jumped out of the tree.

"Are you guys alright?" Hinata asked, repeating the same question of her friend.

"I'm beat, like Tenten put it." Kiba grunted out.

"Same." Shino said.

"He Shika, why weren't you 'asked' to join us?" Choji asked.

"I was asked. But I was able to jump off Lee's back before they started their race." He said as he also jumped out of the tree.

"Lee how dare you, you played false during the race!" Gai accused his student.

Lee bursts in tears out as he kneeled down onto his knees. "I'm sorry Gai-sensei but I didn't know."

Ignoring the whole accuse-forgive-hug-and-tears scene Tenten was busy shaking Neji by his shoulder.

"Guys, we need to get him to the hospital! He won't wake up."

 **5 minutes later, after they leaped over the rooftops, they arrived at the hospital.**

Another two minutes later, Neji was lying in his hospital room.

"Will he be alright doctor?" His female teammate asked.

"Yes, he will wake up I no time. It's just a light change of g-force that put him into this state. On the other side I recommend that the rest of you friends should also get a quick check-up."

The doctor looked at Choji, Kiba and Shino, before he gave a nasty glare toward the two green clothed figures.

Choji, Kiba and Shino followed the doctor as he leaded them towards the check-up room. While Gai and Lee were hugging each other out of desperation.

"Seems that the doctor got a nice laugh out of this." Tenten commented. "Oh, I almost forgot guys, I won't be leaving with you guys. I'm going to stay beside Neji for the night."

Getting an nod from everyone she walked into his room.

 **They were walking out of the hospital as they spotted a blonde idiot walking towards them.**

"He guys!"

All of them stopped with their conversation as they spotted him. Ino was the first one of them to run towards him.

"You idiot, what the hell did you do? You look like a mummy." She put her hands on his back as she began to heal him.

Naruto laughed sheepishly as he said: "I called her an old hag."

"Again?" All of them exclaim at the same time.

Silence fell upon them as they watch their friend heal him.

A minute later she was done as suddenly a ANBU popped up out of nowhere. "You're summoned by the Hokage."

"Who?"

"You."

"But you in the singular or plural form?"

"I don't know," the masked man complained "normally her assistant does this but she's on a mission now, and to make it worse her student is also gone making it impossible for me to get that woman." With that he proofed away.

"That was weird." Naruto said.

"Let just go already." Shikamaru ended their conversation with that.

 **At the Hokage's tower a certain blonde was busy reading a document while a certain man was waiting in front of her.**

"Don't you think you were kind of hard on him you literally said: "ANBU, get me _them_." And then you threw him out of the door."

Said woman stopped with reading and put the document down. "They need to learn to understand woman, without the help of my students."

"Yes, but only one certain woman." He murmured under his breath out.

"What did you say!" Tsunade said angrily. "Don't make the same fault as Naruto -thinking that my hearing is going back with me age-" she whispered the last part softly but dangerously out.

The mood was tense as Yamato mentally prayed the gods for a savior. The door suddenly slammed open as a loud boy ran through it "Old hag, why did you call us?!"

"Naruto! Don't you dare call me that again or I will make it sure that the next time I will break that record."

'Thank you whichever God made that happen' Yamato whispered through his head.

"Don't just barge in," Shikamaru complained as he walked through the door "it's way too troublesome to get a new window installed each time."

He was now standing besides Naruto while the rest of them walked in.

Tsunade suddenly focused her gaze towards a pair of figures standing on the far right of them.

"Gai, Lee," she spat out poisonously "don't think they didn't inform me about your actions. As punishment you two need to repair the area that was destroyed by my record attempt."

"Yes, madame." They both shouted out, before they left the room.

When they the left the room a soft laugh was heard from the 'angry' woman.

"I can't believe my luck; I got a new office chair, a new window and a new piece of grass. Seems I've gotten the last laugh." She said as she broke out into a laugh.

"So why did you call us again?" Yamsto interrupted her laugh.

"Oh, I forgot that you guys were still here."

Everyone sweat dropped in the chamber at her statement, while everyone thought 'and this is our Hokage. Which devil did she pay to get this job?'

"Let's get down to business. Yamato, you and Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino and Hinata will be going on an B-rank mission."

"Sorry to interrupt you, but is a 5-man team really necessary for this mission?" Yamato asked.

"Yes, yes it is. Yamato, you will be leading his mission. This will be a investigate and capture mission. You guys will be investigating an incident in a small village in the west."

"And what kind of incident?"

"Sharp as always Shikamaru. It's a murder."

The silence was tense as nobody dared to speak. Till the most timid of them spoke softly: "B-b-but wouldn't that be at least an A-rank mission?"

"Yes, normally it would but because the victim was only an old woman. My guess is, that this case is nothing more than a bandit accidentally murdering the inhabitant."

Getting an approving nod from the team she continued on: "Alright then, you guys will be leaving tomorrow morning."

* * *

 **Just couldn't wait to post chapter 1 :)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Watch out. The website didn't register the last chapter(chapter1) as an update. So if you missed it, go back to the previous chapter.**

* * *

"Where's that idiot?!" Ino practically screamed out.

"D-D-Don't worry about it, he's probably already on his way." Hinata stammered out.

Somewhere in Konoha. "Where the Ramen, is my special ramen scroll?!"

Back at the gate. "Just have a little bit more fate in him." Yamato tried to convince her.

At his apartment. "Where is it?!"

With the rest of his team. "I'm used with Shikamaru's laziness but not his tardiness."

"Don't pull me into this, besides maybe his sensei rubbed off on him."

Back with him. "Forget it, Ino would murder me if I'm even later."

Three minutes passed at the gate, when they finally saw a small version of the sun rising from the horizon.

"Hey there guys, sorry I'm late but I saw an old lady crossing the street so…"

"Said so." Shikamaru interrupted him. Suddenly Ino grabbed for her wallet and gave him a few green papers.

"You were betting on me!" Naruto whined out.

"Yes, and here." He tossed him over a scroll unscripted with a naruto-symbol on the paper. "You asked me to watch over it, so you wouldn't lose it in the mess of your apartment."

Naruto sweat dropped as he remembered the conversation of yesterday.

"D-d-don't worry about it, Naruto-kun. We're just happy that you are here now." Hinata blushed as she said that.

"Alright then," Yamato gathered them around him "now we are all here. It's time for us to go. It will be a two days trip, with one of them being hiking so be prepared."

 **Later that day, a loud scream was heard from a nice wooden house in the woods.** "I'm sorry, it was an accident!"

"Ino, p-p-please stop. It was just an accident." Hinata said as she was clutching her towel before her chest.

"No it wasn't! That white haired sensei of him rubbed off on him just like the other one of him." Ino screamed back as she was chasing Naruto, while also covering her body with a towel.

"Ino, could you please calm down?" Shikamaru asked. "Yamato asked us to keep it down, while he's gathering some information in the nearest town."

Ino stood still and walked back towards Hinata. "Naruto don't even dare to do this again, or else. Am I clear?" She spat out dangerously.

"Y-y-yes, Ino. Loud and clear." Naruto quickly stammered out while he was cowering behind his friend.

After the girls left he finally let out his breath.

"Geesh, Naruto. What did you do this time?"

"I was walking out of he building towards the river in order to release my bladder, but when I was putting my pants down I spotted the girls washing them self up. I guess Ino saw me and thought that I tried to peak at them."

Shikamaru sighed and looked at him. "So do you still need to pee."

A soft blush was forming on his face as he nodded.

"Troublesome, you really are a hand full aren't you? Just pee out of the window, not that anyone will notice."

 **The next day when they were walking up the mountain, it was surprisingly quiet.**

"Tell me guys, did something happen?" Their captain asked.

His question was answered with silence as Ino stared at Naruto.

"Forget it, I probably don't even want to know."

"Cap-cap-captain did you obtain some info when you were out?"

"Yes I did. I got some people to talk…"

"Ooooh, how did you that?" Naruto asked.

Yamato began to stutter as he tried to describe his actions.

"Naruto," Shikamaru began "maybe when you're older."

"Thank you." The brown head said, while Naruto was cursing them both.

"Where was I?" He paused as he thought about it "Alright then, so I gathered some information. Saying that there was a boy who witnessed it, so we already have a lead."

"Alright then, the sooner we are ready, the sooner I'm back in the village to greet my teammates." Naruto screamed out as he sprinted forward.

"Wait up!" Everyone screamed back.

And, oooh. How wrong and right he was about his statement.

 **When they finally reached the small village.** The first thing they saw was an old man walking up towards them.

"Hello there younglings,, are you the shinobi we hired?" He asked.

"Yes, we are from Konoha. My names is Yamato, the captain of this mission. This here is Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata and Naruto."

"Thank you for coming. My name is Hisao, but you can call me Grand after all my name means long-lived man." He said with a laugh "It's an honor to be blessed with such fine man. My village welcomes you."

"No need to be so formal, Grand." Their captain said as he shook his hand.

"Alright then, let's go to the main house."

The team walked through the village as they followed the old man.

The village wasn't that big. It existed out of a square, called the Forum, that has two roads crossing like a +-sign. The west to east road held most of the houses, while the north to south road holder most of the shops. The main building was located directly in the northeastern corner of the Forum.

"Welcome in the main building, let's head up stairs to my office." Grand suggested.

Everyone walked up the stairs that led to his office. The office wasn't much that much different than from the Hokage's only a bit smaller.

"I take it that you know what happened."

"Yes, but only what stood in the scroll. We had like to know the rest of it." Yamato suggested.

"Excellent plan. Let's see... We have one casualty, an old woman. We don't know much about her because she lived on a small farm in the east from this village."

"Then how did you know about the incident?" Shikamaru asked.

"You see, there was a small boy on the farm about 7 or 8 years old, that boy arrived here in the village five days ago. He was covered in blood but was uninjured. We quickly discovered that he came from a small farm in the east, and that's pretty much it."

"The boy did he tell you guys something?"

"No, not really. He actually hasn't talked since he arrived that day but that's not all."

"What do you mean?" Everyone asked.

"He's also blind."

 **Later that day they were stationed in an Inn, called the Northwestern as it was located in the northwestern corner of the Forum.**

"Alright guys let's plan the schedule of tomorrow. Please sit around the table." Yamato sat down at the head of the table.

"Let's see, we have a boy to visit and a farm to see. Does anyone have suggestion?" He began.

All gazes were focused on one single person, like they were trying to burn an hole into him. "Troublesome, but my suggestion is that Naruto and Ino will visit the boy while the rest of us seek out that farm."

"B-b-because Ino has her justsus and Na-Na-Naruto-kun easily makes friends."

"Correct, Hinata."

Their captain stood up as he handed them over two keys. "We were granted 3 rooms both with two beds. So the girls have one, the guys have one while I will be sleeping in this one. And don't forget, respect each other's privacy."

Ino suddenly started to glare at the Cause-of-yesterday's-problem.

"Am I clear?" Both Yamato and Ino said at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, the night was rather 'calm'.

 **After an awkwardly silence breakfast, they left for their own assignments.**

"Hey Ino, where's he exactly?"

"Seriously Naruto, didn't you pay any bit of attention yesterday at the meeting?" She asked, getting silence as an answer she continued on "He's at the orphanage, somewhere about…here."

They stopped in front of a pretty big building and knocked on the door. Few seconds later the door opened revealing a man in the fifties. "Good morning, can we help you?"

"Yes we're the shinobi Grand hired, we came here to visit the boy."

"It's good that you could come, maybe you can help him?" He took a few steps back to let them enter before he closed the door again.

They walked up towards the second floor till they stood before a room. "He's for the moment staying here. Could you please help him? Or at least try to get him to eat more." He asked out of desperation.

"We will do the best that we can do. But please tell us who have been taking care of him till now." The only female asked.

"Because we aren't such a big village, my two sons are watching over him."

"I think I now the problem. Sir, Naruto could you please wait here for a moment, I'm going to try something." Getting an approving nod she entered the room.

The hallway was surprisingly silent as you would have expected many children to run around. "Sir, could you tell me where al the children are."

The man walked towards a window that looked out of the village, as his memories invaded him. "You know, after the war we've gotten many orphans from around the area. The orphanage was packed full by then. It wasn't much of a problem in the beginning, but after some time the population started to have more children than healthy young adults. So in order to sustain the economy, the children needed to go out and work…" He paused as he let out his breath. "I rather have them here playing and pranking like the children they are, but in times like this."

He stopped as Naruto put his hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to continue, I get it and I will try to help as much I can."

Seconds passed as the man spoke again "T-Thank you, not only for this but for the things that you will do to help us."

Together they stood there watching over the village as the time passed by.

"You guys can come in."

They both turned around ands saw that she was holding the door for them open. Walking in they saw that the boy was eating between his sobs.

"Was it tasty, Hideo?" She asked.

He put his plate down as he picked up a glass of water to flush the rest away. "Yes, it was. Thank you." He whispered out.

"How did you do that miss?" The man asked excitedly.

"You never know what a mother's love can do to a child. But right now he needs a friend to lean on." She looked at Naruto to give him his signal. The boy sat down besides him and began to talk to him as the rest walked out of the chamber.

 **Somewhere in the east.**

"Is this the location?" Shikamaru asked. They were standing before a small house, that looked abandoned.

"If I'm correct the yes, this is the building we have been looking for." Their captain said. "Hinata could you take a look at it?

They opened the door and walked in but stopped immediately as they saw a blood soaked floor with a woman laying in the middle of it.

They took a moment of silence to pray for her. After that they walked into the room and started searching the house. "Hinata you will invest the body and Shikamaru will look through the house with me." Yamato commended.

Hinata kneeled down beside the body and prayed for her again, before she touched her.

The body felt cold as it was already pretty old. She tracked down the bloody tracks and found a knife wound in her neck. Subconsciously she activated her kekkei genkai as she looked at the body. 'No signs of any kind of jutsu damage. It was just an ordinary murder.'

She stopped looking at the body as she started to look around the body for any kind of hint leading to the murderer. 'Why are those spots darker than the rest of its surroundings?' she walked up towards it and observed it from up close. "I-i-it's wet." She whispered to herself. 'But it hasn't rained here for at least a month' she touched the spot with her finger and looked at her finger that became red. 'No way, it's… blood'

She looked outside the house and saw multiple of the same bloody footsteps leading away from the house.

"Hinata, are you done?" Her friend asked as he walked back into the room with Yamato, who was carrying a small box.

"What's that?" Hinata asked.

"I'm not sure but it's closed with a code-lock and I don't want to break the content, so I will be taking it to a smiths. There's another thing that's interesting about his box, it's protected by a seal that blocks chakra." Yamato answered.

Hinata looked disappointed as she was unable to look at it with her eyes.

"Have you guys found something?" Their captain asked.

"It's a bother, but I've found three inhabited rooms."

"I've found footsteps."

A few seconds passed as everyone tried to put the newly required information straight.

"B-b-but wait you said that three rooms were used, and if the boy and the woman are two of them."

Realization hit them like Tsunade's record attempt "Then where is the third occupant?"

* * *

 **Next time in The last laugh: Hideo's getting a flashback and some other stuff.**

 **Next chapter: probably next week.**

 **I know this one is pretty much a filler, but I can't just let them pop up out of nowhere.**

 **p**

 **l**

 **e**

 **a**

 **s**

 **e**

 **review**

 **\/**


	4. Chapter 3

**Posting a new chapter right after I cycled through a hailstorm.**

* * *

"D-d-do you think the third one murdered her?" The shy girl suggested.

"I don't think so we had better track down the thief first, maybe she followed him?" The lazy boy suggested.

"I think that Shikamaru is right, Hinata could you lead us the way?" Yamato suggested asthey walked out of the door and followed the path of bloody footprints.

 **Somewhere less bloody.**

"Ino, could you come in?" Naruto spoke out softly as Hideo was lying in his arms.

She entered the room and sat beside him. "Hideo," she talked with a calming womanly voice "could you tell us what happened?"

"I-I-I…it begun when my granny found a girl." He whispered between his sobs.

 _Flashback_

It was dark in my world, never once did I see the sun or the sky. But most of all I never could see the smile my granny wore, but it wasn't that bad.

I still could hear, taste, smell and most of all feel. The world might not have been easy on me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It was like one gigantic puzzle where I was the hero of my story. Every day I needed to explore more of it and each day I learned more. It was like my own adventure. Sometimes I was walking through a maze, other times I tried to cross a canyon.

So I wasn't that bothered when my granny brought in a visitor, I rather was excited to tell the person my storied.

My granny put her in our extra bed, I immediately began to explore the most obvious. It was I girl, I could feel it by her waistline. Her breathing was slow as she was unconscious. Her clothes were tattered to almost nonexistent.

My granny took care of her that day till she woke up.

"Hideo could you please come. I've something to tell you." My granny called out for me. I walked through the gate of the maze and sat down on our visitor's bed.

"Hideo, this is a wounded girl. I've found by the river. She will be staying here till she's well again." My grandma paused like she was done. I stood up and was about to walk away when she called out again "There's something wrong with the river so don't go there, if you want some water go to the well, alright?"

I nodded and walked out of the room.

The next day when my grand-grand was collecting firewood, I walked into the sleeping beauty's room.

I sat down beside her and began to feel her face, it wasn't like any other face I've ever felt. It wasn't plain or wrinkled like my granny's but it was parted in two halves one of which felt like it had been burned. My fantasy imagined a young girl with a sunburn on her face.

Later on I began to feel the rest of her body, the face wasn't the only weird part. Her left arm had also sustained a burn it felt exactly like the lefts side of her face. The burns also ran down partially her left leg and her left rib.

I was busy feeling her face again to get more details when it started to shift. The first thing I thought of was that it was a shapeshifter. But after a few painful grunts, I concluded that she was waking up.

"Where am I?" Was the first thing she said or rather whispered.

I tried to search for the glass of water beside her bed when she beat me at it. She picked up the glass as I heard a small friction of the table. She probably drunk the whole glass as there was a hollow sound when she put it down.

"You're blind?" She said with a much clearer voice.

"Yes," I answered "you're at my granny's house. My name is Hideo. What's your name?"

Weirdly enough she didn't answer me directly but waited –like she was in deep thoughts- before she spoke: "I-I-I don't know."

I could sense that she was stressed, I tried to relieve her as I hugged her. "Don't cry, my granny always says that 'Whatever may happen even if you can't see or the world ends, you must always smile.' Please don't cry." I pleaded.

To my relieve I felt that her facial muscles were working, lifting the tips of her lips.

"Hideo, I'm home!" I heard from the livingroom.

"Granny she's awake!" I screamed back.

I heard her walking towards the room when she said: "Oh dear, are you alright?"

"I'm a little bit soar, but I think I'm fine."

"Granny," I added "she doesn't remember anything."

"Amnesia?" She sat down beside me as I felt the bed shifting its weight.

I guess she nodded because the next thing my grandma said was "Don't worry dear, maybe you will remember in time. How should we call you till then?"

"Can I suggest one?" I said excitedly as I got a new 'sister'.

"I had like it." The stranger answered.

"If you insist, I guess why not. What would you like then?" I smiled at granny's approval.

"What about 'Hohoemi' it means 'smile' just like the thing my granny likes to do most."

"I love it." They both said

Minutes passed as we talked about all kinds of things.

"Hideo could you excuse us?" Granny asked.

I stood up and left the room, but as curious as I was. I stops right behind the door to eavesdrop at them.

"It's an interesting boy." Hohoemi whispered out.

"Yes, he's always been like that. But let's talk about you, do you remember what happened?"

She probably shook her head as I heard my grandma again.

"I hoped that you could tell me, but oh well. I found you by the stream when I was searching for wild mushrooms for in the stew. You were unconscious by then. I hate to say this but the normally clear water was colored and it stunk horribly. You were lying in that water or rather lying in the poisonous drab it became. You might have noticed but your face was by then half eaten away by that stuff."

Seconds passed when I couldn't hear their conversation till Hohoemi spoke again. "What should I do now?"

"You could stay with us. I could use another hand and Hideo would love to have a new playmate. I also believe that I still have some of my old clothing lying here and there."

I heard my granny standing up and I ran away as fast as I could.

Days went on, as my newly acquired sister was helping us.

I could sense that she was happy again, helping my granny cook, collecting wood and most of all playing with me.

But her memories never came back.

At the time she was wearing a T-shirt with a jacket above it, which she let open. She also wore a pair of shorts and knee high sandals.

The days merged together as time passed on. Me and my 'sister' were playing in the forest as the time dragged on, but we noticed too late that it became dark.

We walked back to the house, relaxed by the soft breeze that the grassland brought us. I could hear the door screeching as we came closure to the house.

She suddenly began to pick me up, carrying me as she ran. 'Why would she be running? Aren't we close to home? I could hear the door scree… No way, why would the door be open this late at night?'

I felt the wind stop as we entered the house. She put me down as she hit the ground, sobbing harder than I could imagine possible.

I began to kneel down and began to search the ground. I was utterly confused and couldn't get my grasp on it when I hit some kind of wet substance.

"Please don't cry," granny spoke out, I began to crawl towards her voice till I found her. My fingers crawled over her on their own command. Till I felt her face, she felt cold but her muscles were tense like they were still trying to smile. "don't be sad. Lives goes on, even without me."

Then it hit me, the wet substance was her blood and the cold of her skin was her life slowly leaving her. "Remember to always smile no matter what life throws at you."

"Who did this?!" My sister screamed.

"Don't be angry now, you were like a daughter I never had. My mother once told me," she began to babble on as her consciousness was leaving "that a man once told her to always laugh at the world, and those words were the one she told me. So I ask you two to always keep that beautiful smile of yours on your faces no matter what." and then her body fell limb.

Emotions rushed through my veins as I too got embraced into the darkness, but not before I heard a door slamming shut.

I woke up in the arms of my sister as she was carrying me towards an unknown location.

"Listen to me, Hideo. I'm going to drop you off by the nearest village."

"What happened?" I asked her as I was touching her face. My hands hit a sticky substance that caused them to automatically retreat back. My hands hit her arms, especially her left hand that was heavily bandaged for some reason.

"I followed the thief…let's just say that he won't bother anyone anymore."

"W-what do you mean?" I began to stutter as her voice left her usual tone.

"We got into an...argument, but it's all good know cause I left him with a smile."

I flinched between the pause of her sentence, and tried not to think much about it.

"What are we going to do in the village?"

"Sorry, but I won't be joining you."

It became even more confusing than before. I stared at her like when she just arrived at my house, injured from an horrible accident –which she did so I knew what kind of face I made-. "Where will you be going then?"

Her breathing became fast and heavy like she was chocking or something when she let out a loud laugh. "I will show the world the last thing I promised my ' _mother_ '."

I flinched as I even didn't dare to call granny 'mother'. I was shaken out of my gaze as we stopped.

She put me down the road and patted my head. "The village is another fifty meters behind you."

I felt her warmth leaving me as she walked away.

"Remember to always smile!" She screeched.

 _Flashback end_

"I'm sorry."

Questions marks rose from the two shinobis' head. "Say kid, why are you sorry?" Naruto asked.

He began to sob as his mouth was put into I smile. "I promised my sister and granny to always smile, and look at what I've done the last few days."

Ino suddenly embraced him into a hug and whispered quietly "Ssssst, don't cry. They aren't mad. We are here now."

The boy stopped crying as he entered a deep slumber.

 **Near Hideo's house was a group of three shinobi walking through the forest.**

"W-w-we have a problem."

Everyone stopped in their tracks as they looked at the talking woman.

"T-t-the earth has way to much moisture here. My Byakuguan isn't able to detect the d-d-difference between the ground and the fainted blood tracks."

"That isn't good." Shikamaru whispered out.

Time passed as they thought of a new way to follow their trail.

"What's that?" Both of the teenagers looked at their captain. "What's what?" The boy asked.

"That chakra," he spoke out "it can't be." Everyone listened intensely "It's the Kyuubi's chakra."

* * *

 **There we have it, the plot.**

 **next chapter: somewhere next week**

 **I'm probably just going to post weekly or something like that.**

 **If you want to know when the prologue will come to play, around chapter 6 or 7, I guess.**


	5. Chapter 4

**New chapter and summary. I actually have already done a few chapters , and now I have the plot totally figured out.**

 **Reasons:**

 **I like to post no matter what**

 **I'm at a point where the summary is a scene.**

 **Back to the story: previously Hideo's backstory and Kyuubi's chakra.**

" _ **That chakra," he spoke out "it can't be." Everyone listened intensely "It's the Kyuubi's chakra."**_

* * *

"W-w-what do you mean?" Hinata asked "Y-y-you don't think Naruto-kun…"

"No, it's much fainter. Like it was released some time ago and is now hanging there like a fog." The wood user answered.

"Do you think that's where this trail leads to?" Shikamaru suggested.

"I'm not sure but it's our only lead now. Let's go." He leaped into one of the trees and began to continue forward, soon followed by the rest of his team.

Their search was filled with silence as Yamato concentrated on the chakra and the Hyuuga focused on any new leads with her kekkei genkai.

"I see something, it's…" she stopped in her run as the colour of her skin left her.

"What did you see?" Shikamaru asked.

Hinata gulped before she said: "It's a man, he isn't breathing … b-but his face i-is the source of the tailed beast's chakra."

"Then there's no time to waste." Yamato started to jump faster as he took the news the best out of the three.

Three hundred meters further they found the man pinned down against the tree. The knife that pinned him down was nothing more than a kitchen knife, even though it was stuck in his chest.

His face was rather a whole other ordeal to look at. Both of the younger shinobis were unable to look at it for longer than three seconds. Consisting out of these three points:

1: What's that?

2: Observing

3: Realization

… They both threw up their breakfast.

The man's face wasn't only beaten up to pulp, but it also received three big scars.

The first two began on both the tips of his mouth, they stretched till far into the cheeks forming a wicked smile. The smile wasn't the only problem, the blood, that was still oozing out of the scars, was slowly streaming over his face before it hit the ground.

The third scar was even worst as it was the biggest and that it only intensified the rest. This wound wasn't made by a knife but something rather acidic. It spread from his mouth till the tips of the other two scars. The area it reached, became red as the skin was gone.

How they knew that, because it was still boiling off from his face.

Finally their captain couldn't hold it either, as his breakfast flew out of his mouth.

The normally silent forest was filled with the sounds of three man observing and adding more and more halfway digested food.

After a minute or ten they dared to look at it again before they puked again. There stomach might not have hold any more substance but that doesn't mean they can't throw out some of the gastric acid inside their stomach.

Another ten minutes later they looked again, this time holding their nutrition in.

"The chakra is emitted from one of those scars." Yamato concluded.

"It-it's the biggest one." Hinata confirmed.

"Let's put it in a body bag before we try to think up a theory about it." Shikamaru quickly suggested.

Without any hesitation Yamato unsealed one and quickly made work of it. "Now that's done, let's come up with a few theories."

"I-I-I think that the third inhabitant caused this." The kunoichi stammered as the horrible images were still flashing through her mind.

"I believe that the third inhabitant was also able to wield the Kyuubi's chakra and is now trying to leave this area." The brightest one of them suggested.

"I totally agree with you guys, but I also think that I might be able to find that person when he or she has the _special_ chakra."

Their captain began to perform multiple hand sings, when his body suddenly changed into wood and multiple clones began to crawl out of him.

"Alright guys you need to scan this parameter to see if you can find the person, dismissed."

All the clones jumped away into their own direction as they scanned for the chakra.

"Increasing your sensing distance with clones, I can respect that." Shikamaru commented, while he picked up the body bag "But couldn't you have left one to carry this?"

The jutsu user suddenly stood right before him, staring right in his eyes. Out of nowhere he took out a flashlight as he shone on his face. "No, I was unable."

"G-guys?" Hinata said as she tried to stop their bickering "It's high time for us to go. W-w-we agreed to rendezvous over an hour."

 **An hour later when the sky grew dark, everyone was back in the inn.** They were seated around the table with a body bag on it.

"Did you guys got the boy to talk?" Yamato started their meeting.

"Yes, his name is Hideo and he lived with the victim, granny, together with his older adopted sister." The kunoichi said.

"Seems we found the third inhabitant." Shikamaru whispered out.

"They boy didn't knew a lot about the murder itself, but he did tell us a lot about his sister." She continued.

"His sister, Hohoemi, wasn't exactly living there for a long time." Naruto said as he picked up the rest of the story "She rather recently arrived there, as an unconscious patient. Sadly enough she seemed to have amnesia when she woke up. In the time she stayed there, she grew surprisingly close with them. Even tills the point that the boy calls her 'his sister' and the old woman calling her 'the daughter she never had'."

"Do you have any kind of details about her appearance."

"We do but it isn't much, if you would look at the boy's condition." Ino stopped with her sentence as she thought about his story again. "She was a young lady, who's a burn mark on her left side. The most distinctively ones run over her arm and face. She might have changed her clothes by now, but she wore a jacket and had her left hand bandaged."

"Do you know what caused the scars?" Their captain asked.

"Probably from the chemicals that drifted on the water, where she was found." Answered Naruto.

"If you two are done I had like to start our story." Getting a nod from them Yamato breathed deep in "We started at the house and found a track leading towards the bandit. When we found the bandit, he… wasn't in the best shape."

Everybody tensed as he paused to find the right words.

"We were also able to conclude that he received a scar caused by the Kyuubi's chakra."

"H-how?" Naruto stammered out in shock.

"We aren't sure, but we guess that she's able to wield that chakra." Shikamaru answered.

"I've also send out a bunch of wood clones to look for her. I believe that was everything, isn't it,"

Shikamaru gave an approving grunt as his mind started to drive of again while Hinata said: " Y-y-you forgot about the box."

"Box?" Both the uninformed shinobi asked.

"Yes, I forgot. We also found a small box which had a seal on it that blocked chakra. But it was only closed off with a simple code-lock, so tomorrow I will bring to the smiths."

"I don't believe that's necessary," Ino suggested "maybe the boy knows how to open it. After all it's his property now."

"Good idea," Yamato paused as he looked at the body bag before his face paled "I guess it's time to look at the corpse for any kind of clues towards the disappearance of Hohoemi."

They zipped open the bag as the body slowly became visible. First the feet then the chest with the knife and lastly the head.

1…

2…

3…

…the two mentally unprepared shinobi ran towards the bathroom.

Ten minutes later after observing and re-tasting their breakfast. They entered the room again.

"If you are ready, we can begin."

The body got slowly pulled out of the back and got spread over the table.

Yamato started to analyze the foreign chakra, Hinata activated her Byakugan and Ino started to use her medical chakra on the wounds.

Meanwhile Shikamaru was about to drift off and Naruto was still worried about the Kyuubi's chakra 'Who could also have this power? And would this happen if I accidentally did the same to someone?'

He was about to answer his own questions as he spotted something. "Guys, he's holding something in his hand."

Shikamaru who was snapped back into reality, walked towards the man's hand and began to observe it from up close.

"It's a dark red piece of fabric."

"Do you think it's from the killer?" The spotter asked.

"I'm almost hundred percent positive about that. I believe that he wanted to give us at least her scent in his final moments. Too bad we don't have a dog with us" he said as he sealed the evidence away.

"Interesting…" Ino suddenly said "this chakra is blocking my medical chakra."

"Troublesome, but that means…"

"That the wounds on his face will never fade away. Those scars a permanent." Ino finished.

Hours past as they observed the body before they went to sleep. **The next morning the set out to visit the boy.**

"Hideo are you there? I've come with some friends." Ino said as she knocked on the boy's door.

"Yes I'm here." He answered. Ino opened the door and saw him sitting on his bed with a bright smile.

"He there Hideo. I'm back with some friends." Naruto called out excitedly.

"Naruto how could I've not noticed you. I could smell your ramen odor from a kilometer away." Naruto eyebrow began to twitch as he smelled his armpit. "Hi there, my name is Hideo what are yours?" He continued completely obvious by his friend's behavior.

"Hi, my name is Shikamaru."

"I-I-it's nice to meet you, Hideo. My name is Hinata."

"Hey there, you can call me Yamato. I had like to ask you a favor."

"What do you mean?"

Yamato grabbed for his pouch as he got the box out of it. "I'm sorry for your granny, but we have investigated your house and we found a small sealed box. We had like if you would open it for us, we get it if you don't want to."

He handed over the box to the boy. The boy's hand began to travel all around it as he started to mentally paint it out. "This was from my granny" he whispered out.

 _Flashback_

"Granny what is this?" I asked as I felt a small box getting pushed into my hands.

"It was from my mother. You know Hideo. I'm not getting younger by the day." She said "If something ever happens to me, remember this box. It holds something that might be handy."

"But how do I open it?"

"There's a small lock on top of it, the code is…"

 _Flashback end_

Locks began to click as he entered the code in. Suddenly the box sprung open as the content became visible.

"I-i-it's a necklace." Hinata stuttered out as the boy picked it up. It was a blue crystal with a red spot in it shaped like a small fire.

"There's also a letter." Ino said as the boy took it out. The letter was pretty old but nonetheless in perfect shape as the boy handed it over.

She took the letter and unfolded it, to her to read it out loud.

 _Dearest love of mine,_

 _It's hard for me to say this let stand writing this down, but you and I knew that this would happen._

 _It has been a great time with you, we cried, we trained and we laughed. You smile never stopped to amaze me, in the darkest of times you cheered me on, in the most difficult times you comforted your daughter, by the loss of your husband you still supported everyone around you._

 _You were unique and I'm happy to say that I knew you. I know I can't replace your lost, but I was happy to be a friend of yours. Time dragged on and you grew on me, we started as strangers but I ended in love with you._

 _This confession might be a big shock for you, but I was unable to say this. I regretted every minute I was unable to say this. But I guess I'm too late._

 _My brother is stepping down and I'm elected to be his successor. That might sound great but it also has its own downsides._

 _For one I can't leave the village without a proper reason. I might be in love with you but I can't let my people behind. It's hard for me but I think that we need to break up our relationship._

 _The choice is hard but the work and stress this job brings me is unbelievable, I wish this could be different. But as stubborn as we are, we know it could never be a 'us', you lived far in the high mountains while I lived in the village covered by a forest._

 _I could always decline this offer, but in these times of war troubles are about to rise. I swore to defend my village no matter what, and I guess it's now backfiring._

 _I'm sorry for the sadness that I will cause you but I can't maintain a long distance relationship like this._

 _Please forget me and live on to see that beautiful daughter of yours grow up._

 _As my last words for you I will give you a gives. It's a necklace with a fire shaped crystal in it._

 _May the will of fire never extinguish like the brightness of your smiles._

 _Live might be hard on you, but what doesn't kill you make you stronger._

 _Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise again._

 _Never let that smile of yours disappear._

 _Live your life to the fullest._

 _Loves,_

 _Tobirama Senju_

Ino folded the letter back up as tears started to stream down her face.

Suddenly the door opened as boss of the orphanage walked in. "Sorry, did I interrupted something?" He said as he spotted her drying her tears.

"No you didn't, could you please come in." Hideo said as he pointed to the spot next to him.

The man walked towards him and sat down.

Hideo looked at him with the brightest smile he could wear as he shoved the necklace into his hands.

"What this my boy?" He said as he held the necklace in front of him.

"It's a necklace, I'm giving it to you to safe the orphanage."

"Thank but I don't think it would be much of a help, the amount we need is…"

He got interrupted as the other legally adult interfered "It's actually a gift from the second Hokage, this thing could be worth millions."

The man suddenly looked stunned at the realization as he observed the crystal. "I'm sorry Hideo, but I can't accept this."

"Don't worry about it, I insist that you take it." He argued as he tried to smile even brighter.

The man also broke out into a smile as he began to hug the boy "Thank you so much, this will definitely safe the orphanage. No more working days today we're going to party."

"I'm just happy that I could give you a smile just like granny wanted. Now I'm going to make loads of friends and give them all a nice smile on their faces."

Now everyone began to join their hug as they all laughed and smiled. Except one person.

He was listening with a mental link to one of his clones.

"You got to be serious!" he screamed out causing everybody to release their group hug "Guys we have to leave now, my clone just spotted someone. We need to inform Grand that we are going to leave now."

"Don't worry about that," the other man reassured "we will cover that up. Just leave for your mission."

* * *

 **Next chapter: next Friday**

 **What's going to happen: something ;)**

 **Please leave a comment, what do you think about the new summary?**

 **update: 3 hours later(I know, but I kind of forgot to do it the first time)- some typos removed.**


	6. Chapter 5

"Captain Yamato, what did your clone find?"

He didn't have time to answer Ino's question when she suddenly sped forwards leaving the rest in the dust.

Hinata activated her Byakugan as she tried to track her down when she saw what or rather who her friend sensed.

"I-it's Sai."

And in no time Naruto was gone leaving only a small line of smoke to follow.

The moment he arrived, he saw Ino pulling him out of the river.

She quickly began to heal him. The wounded boy was unconscious, in addition his clothes we're teared alongside multiple cuts on his body, which soon disappeared as the green medical chakra went over it.

"Troublesome is whatever happened to him." The lazy boy commented as he walked into the clearing soon followed by the rest of his teammates.

'Whatever happened to him. To him. _Him_.' Shikamaru's words kept repeating in Naruto's mind till it finally went blank 'Whatever happened to _them_.'

Ino stood up as she was done healing the unconscious boy before she was pushed aside by a worried idiot. He stood above him tightening his hands around Sai's shoulders before he began to shake him like a building during a earthquake.

"Tell me what happened!" He demanded or rather screamed "Where are they! Wake up you bastard! Where's…"

His captain quickly restrained him before he good worsen the boy's situation. But the soft whispers of him never ended "Where are you, Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto, you idiot!" Ino said as she got up "He won't wake up if you don't let him rest."

"S-s-she's right Naruto-kun. We need to set up camp so Sai can recover." Hinata said.

Naruto tried to calm down and walked towards the woods while saying that he was getting some firewood. He walked away from his problems

 **After they set up camp, a fire was started as they sat down under the stars.** Their friend was recovering in their tent -or rather wooden house- while Hinata kept an eye on him, as the rest prepared diner.

"Ino, when do you think he will wake up?" Yamato asked.

Ino's head snapped up as she was put out of trance "It might be any moment now or it could be tomorrow morning."

Shikamaru sighted as he stirred the stew. "Ino, Naruto, would you like to tell us what's wrong. You two have been spacing out this whole afternoon."

Naruto tripped as he mentioned his name, letting all the wood he was carrying fall. He bent to pick them back up while he answered: "I've just been thinking a lot."

"Same." Ino answered while she was throwing some vegetables into the stew.

Shikamaru muttered something out that sounded like 'troublesome' as he gave up on interrogating them. 'Clearly they don't want to talk about it' he concluded.

"Dinner is done!" He screamed after a while. Seconds later Naruto, Hinata and Yamato walked out of the house as they set down beside him and Ino.

Giving each of them a bowl, they sat silently as they ate their diner.

As some of them took a second a soft grunt was heart from the house. They turned around as they saw a bandaged Sai walking out of the door. Clearly still sore from the hyperthermia he moved rather stiff. Hinata quickly ran up to him to support him by letting him rest on her shoulder "A-a-are you alright."

He smiled at her, either because he was grateful or because he was an emotional retard. "I'm fine, just a bit sore and hungry."

Hinata put him down beside the fire and handed him over a bowl. He eagerly took it as his stomach growled. Soon he began to eat but while eating he felt eyes staring at him. He looked up from his dinner and saw the rest of the team staring at him. "Is there something wrong? Do I've something on my face?"

"No there's nothing wrong but we…"

" _I_ had like to know what happened." Naruto said as he cut off Yamato.

Sai put his dinner down and looked gazed as he tried to remember.

"It started when we arrived at Suna three days after we left the village…

 _Flashback_

A small dot appeared on the horizon as we saw The village hidden in the sand appearing, like a sun rise.

"Almost there guys." Shizune called.

Sooner or later we arrived at their gate. Two man walked up to us, one of them recognized Sakura as the person who saved the Kazekage's brother.

He complimented her a few times causing her to turn red. I quickly stopped the man for advancing any further as she was clearly getting a cold from him.

The man winked an eyebrow at me when I stopped him. I believed he got my attentions. He escorted us towards the Kazekage tower. On our way he was the whole time talking about the infamous art of puppetry.

The whole trip I was observing my teammates. Shizune was looking rather interested, while Sakura was smiling awkwardly. Not knowing what to do, I smiled interesting.

When we finally reached the tower, we said goodbye and walked up the stairs. We arrived at his office and knocked on the door till he let us in.

"Greetings Kazekage-sama." We greeted in symphony.

"Shizune, Sai and Sakura," he looked at us one by one "it's good to see you again."

After a quick chat the older medic started to ask about the mission. "Could you tell us where to start?"

Gaara looked at us before he picked up a document from his table.

"I'm sorry to mention this, but yesterday we got the message that some of Chiyo's old notes were found."

"What do you mean?" My other teammate asked.

"It means that your assistance isn't necessary anymore. You three can leave early, but I don't want to make this journey a waste of time. So we have some medical stuff to hand over. You can pick them up at the gate."

I nodded and walked through the door as I saw both women looking either frustrated or trying to do a failing duck face.

I walked through the village till we reached the gate with a 'frustrated duck'.

I was never that good at naming.

We picked up our cargo as we left for the desert again. 500 meters away from the gate my teammate finally snapped.

"Argh, why couldn't he have send a messenger bird or something?!"

"Sakura, you know that he just recently knew about this. Bedsides he did give us a little present." My other teammate said.

"Yes, giving us three boxes for us to carry after we just arrived and now we need to head back through the desert without any rest, that's really nice." She said that with such a smile that I even could see the fakeness radiating from it.

"Just be happy that we can go home earlier."

"Good point, beside don't you…"

I cancelled them out as they continued on with their chitchat.

I looked up toward the clear blue sky as I thought about the things I've learned in the past few months. Sooner or later we exchanged the sand with an endless amount of trees till the sun started to switch places with the moon.

We decided to set up camp near a river. After the tents were set, me and Sakura prepared the dinner.

"Sai, don't you think that the river isn't a bit too wild to dive and fish."

I smiled at her and took my ink out "I can reassure you that I won't be diving into it." I began to pour my ink into the water, as it started to come alive. Soon it started to slither around in the stream as it was searching for our dinner.

"A snake?"

"No, a basilisk." I corrected her. She nodded and walked away to gather some water for the fish stew.

It was already pretty late as we started to eat. Stew was passed on till we all began to eat. There was a comfortable silence as we ate when I heart a stick snapping behind me.

I turned around and saw a shadow sneaking away into the bushes. I placed my bowl down and grabbed for a kunai. "Come on out whoever you are." I commanded.

A masked man walked out of the bushes as he observed our camp.

"What do you want?" Shizune asked while she too grabbed for her kunai.

The man began to laugh as he watched us "What I want is the content of those boxes."

"Why would you want it? It's nothing more than a few medical chemicals." Sakura argued.

"We will see about that." He snapped his fingers and out of nowhere 29 bandits came out of the bushes.

And the fight started.

We were outnumbered 1:10 but we were able to keep most of them at bay. Most.

I turned around as I saw Shizune getting knocked into the fast streaming river. The power of the stream was fast enough to drag her away. My attention shivered as I called out for her, and a small mistake could lead to one's end.

While I screamed out for her. I never noticed my opponent calling out 'Landslide jutsu'

I turned around and saw a huge wall of earth coming towards me. It was like seeing a gigantic brick fist coming closure to you. I closed my eyes and embraced the coming impact.

But the impact came from the right. I snapped my eyes open as I landed on my back. Crawling up in time I got to see my other teammate get it by it.

It was like a real landslide everything that was on its path it dragged with him, including the camp and Sakura.

I tried to draw a bird to save her but the rest of the bandits soon jumped on top of me.

I saw her unconscious form getting pushed into the river alongside our whole camp.

"You idiot!" One of the masked man screamed "You literally just flushed our loot away."

Using the distraction to my advantage I pushed the men of me and started to run down stream. I desperately tried to safe the rest of my teammates, but luck wasn't on my side as the bandits soon caught up on me. Outnumbered 1:30 I had no chance to leave this fight unwounded and wounded I did.

The fight didn't last for long as the didn't need to watch out for the boxes anymore, they fired out a combined jutsu. I got hit and launched into the waters.

 _Flashback end_

Sai's story was answered with silence as he picked up his dinner again.

Naruto suddenly jumped up and hysterically screamed: "Then where the hell is the rest of you guys?!"

"Naruto, calm down." Yamato commanded "Don't you see that he doesn't know, besides let him rest he needs to recover his strength."

The loud boy sat down with a grunt as he began to stare into his stew.

"Could you guys tell me why you are here?" The new boy asked.

The team began to explain their story, except Naruto who was the whole time staring in his food.

"Could you give me that piece of textile?" Sai asked as they finished their story.

Shikamaru unsealed it and handed it over to him. The boy took it in his hand while he took a scroll out with his other hand.

He quickly began to paint a drawing on the scroll. It became alive and popped from the paper. It was a dog.

He handed the piece of clothing to the ink dog to sniffle on it, before the dog ran away.

"What did you just do?" Ino asked.

"I just gave him a scent to follow, he probably will be back in the morning."

"But that's an ink…" She tried to argue.

"Why would you think they don't have the same properties as a real one?"

* * *

 **I know this one isn't really that great, but it's hard to write this guy :(**

 **But nevertheless some info about the other team.**

 **Alright then, next chapter: Sai joins the team and the ink dog leads them to new discoveries.**

 **When: next week.**

 **Please tell me your opinions.**


	7. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry for not posting and neglecting the set date.**

 **I was kind of busy with 'life' and such, for example: Chinese New Year.**

 **So here it is the latest chapter of 'The Last Laugh'.**

 **Recap:**

 _ **Sai's story was answered with silence as he picked up his dinner again.**_

 _ **Naruto suddenly jumped up and hysterically screamed: "Then where the hell is the rest of you guys?!"**_

 _ **"Naruto, calm down." Yamato commanded "Don't you see that he doesn't know, besides let him rest he needs to recover his strength."**_

 _ **The loud boy sat down with a grunt as he began to stare into his stew.**_

 _ **"Could you guys tell me why you are here?" The new boy asked.**_

 _ **The team began to explain their story, except Naruto who was the whole time staring in his food.**_

 _ **"Could you give me that piece of textile?" Sai asked as they finished their story.**_

 _ **Shikamaru unsealed it and handed it over to him. The boy took it in his hand while he took a scroll out with his other hand.**_

 _ **He quickly began to paint a drawing on the scroll. It became alive and popped from the paper. It was a dog.**_

 _ **He handed the piece of clothing to the ink dog to sniffle on it, before the dog ran away.**_

 _ **"What did you just do?" Ino asked.**_

 _ **"I just gave him a scent to follow, he probably will be back in the morning."**_

 _ **"But that's an ink…" She tried to argue.**_

 _ **"Why would you think they don't have the same properties as a real one?"**_

* * *

The team woke up as a loud bark was heart from outside the house. A small black and white dog was making loud noises as he tried to get their attention. His barks were like the screeching of a rooster at six in the morning.

Grunts erupted from the rooms as people woke up and got ready for the day. Zombie like creatures walked through the house, tiredly putting their clothes one while small grunts left their mouths. That all happened in the first five minutes of waking up, before they took their first cup of coffee.

The moment the caffeine took their wished affected , their brains once activated again. Slowly starting to register the meaning of the loud barking. Their zombie like behaviour got quickly replaced when they spat their coffee out like a fountain spray, running and panicking around like a Jiraiya, who's getting chased by an angry mob of women, they quickly got ready. Gathering their belongings like a woman, who's ready to chase a pervert, as they were trying to make up for the lost time.

Once they were done, the team immediately left. The ink dog ran in front of them as he quickly led them to his discovery. "Guys, help me remember to give us a 'morning-wake-up-and-reaction-time-training'." Yamato commanded.

Receiving several nods, as the rest of them tried to eat their breakfast during their running. Crumbs flew everywhere while pieces of cheese got passed around.

 **An hour later of throwing cheese around, smoke started to rise from the horizon.** It was like a dark cloud hovering over the sky, marking the territory of the dark side.

"What's that?" Naruto asked as he pointed towards the smoke.

Hinata follow his finger as she activated her Byakugan. "It-it-it's a small village nothing more than a small clan compound."

Yamato cursed under his breath as he commanded that they needed to speed up.

 **Once they arrived at the scene they dog disappeared in a splash of ink, leaving only a spatter of two marking his existence.** The team stood there with their mouths wide open as they took in their surroundings. The little rays of sunlight, which got through the thick layer of smoke, lightened the in darkness covered village

The village looked like the Uchiha compound as it had the same architecture and layout, but the resemblance didn't stop there.

Red were the walls and streets as the bodies lay on the ground. Blood silently still streamed over the floors and out of the citizens, indicating that it couldn't have happened less than a day ago. Smoke rose from the buildings alongside the smell of the metal, iron -the smell of blood-.

"Wh-what happened here?" Ino stuttered out, horrified by the scene.

"It's a massacre," their captain answered as he relived the Uchiha massacre through his mind, he took a deep breath and walked into the compound.

They slowly began to move as the shock ebbed away. The team walked through the blood soaked streets when Sai called out: "Guys, look at their faces."

The rest of the team stopped as they looked at the faces. Each of them froze as they saw the injuries each one of them sustained.

"Hohoemi." Yamato slowly spoke out, disgust and terror clearly visible in his voice.

The faces of the fallen men were all the same, forever altered into that horrible smile. The skin around their mouths were red as the foreign chakra still ate away the many layers of the skin.

"They all have those wicked looks." Hinata commented as she looked over the whole area with her kekkei genkai, before she puked her breakfast out by the horrifying sights.

After her stomach calmed down, every member of their team took their headgear of and hold a minute of silence as they showed their respect for the fallen.

The minute was filled with soft praying and wishes, once the 60 seconds were over Shikamaru asked: "Captain why didn't you sense the chakra?"

Yamato looked thoughtfully before he answered: "She's probably getting better at controlling it. She won't leave anymore chakra on them than necessary." He let out his breath while he put his headband back on "It also leaves me no reason to keep up my clones." Holding his hands in a particular sign, he felt his chakra return as soon as they were all dispelled.

"Let's just walk down the street and see if we can find some clues. Hinata, I guess you already know what's in those houses."

"Y-y-yes." She stuttered out. They walked further into the village, till they reached the main square. Gasps left the younglings mouths while their stared with horror towards the messages.

"Why would she do this?" Ino asked. Nobody answered her as they all looked at the blood covered wall. The inscriptions were messy like they were handmade.

 _Just keep smiling_

 _Die with a smile_

 _Laugh till the end_

 _No matter what keep smiling_

 _Happiness for all_

 _This world is one big joke_

 _Smile till the end_

 _Just get the joke_

 _Smile, laugh and joke_

 _The last laugh_

 _Believe it_

Horrified as they read the words one the wall get sharper and more clumsily written, like a writer losing control of his hand.

" 'Believe it.' Wasn't that a word you used to say?" Sai commented, as he remembered one of their shared stories. No answer ever came as Naruto looked with a faraway gaze at the words, like he couldn't believe it was true.

Naruto expressions were like a virus, effecting everyone around him. Like they were possessed they walked out of the village. There gazes looked far away, as they didn't try to think about it. Even Sai, the normally emotional noob, looked paler than normal. 'Even the Root can't prepare you for this.'

Once they were far enough not to smell the iron they stopped and turned around to pay their last bit of respect. Finally they let out their long held breath as the adrenaline flowed away.

"Troublesome," was the first word they heard, " however I suggest we go to the nearest village, to rest and go over our discoveries."

"Alright, if I'm correct. There's a town a bit more north from here." Their captain said.

 **Three hours later they arrived at the main road of the town.** The town was pretty busy as it was stuffed with all kinds of restaurants, casinos and inns. Unlike Konoha, the streets were filled with innocent citizens instead of ninjas of the leaf.

"You guys can eat your lunch here, while I will be buying some necessary equipment." Yamato suggested as he pointed towards a small restaurant.

Nods were exchanged as the hidden meaning behind his words were noticed. The teenagers walked into the building, towards a table in the far right corner. They just sat down as a waiter came by.

He placed a teapot down and asked: "What would you like to eat?"

"What would you recommend us?" Ino asked.

The waiter's face lit up as he started to brag about their famous sandwiches.

Slowly but steadily veins popped up from everyone, except for Hinata and Sai, as his speech dragged on and on.

"They are like angels walking over your tong, as the cheese melts in your mouth and the meat fills your mouth with taste while the lettuce sings, like a Siren who's trying to lure more into your mouth; don't forget the sauce which…"

"We head like to have six plates of your _famous_ sandwiches." Ino interrupted him. The waiter quickly noted everything down, before he left.

"Thanks, that guy was such a drag." Shikamaru claimed as he started to pour everyone some tea.

Once everyone took a few sips Hinata started to talk "So, w-what do you guys think?"

"It's a little bit too hot, but nothing a bit of patience can't change."

"Naruto you moron, she didn't mean your tea, but the village." Ino said frustrated.

"Aaah, I get it." He said while sheepishly rubbing his head like the idiot he was "I think it was a bit unsettling to know who did it, and that we're friends with her 'brother'"

"Me too," she commented "it's just weird to think about it."

"You know," Sai began "it's pretty weird to know who that person is. Especially knowing that she probably still suffers from amnesia."

He received a small sigh from Shikamaru as he put the pieces together "It's a pain to think about it, but see it like this. We know that she's lost her memory and is now wandering around this area like a maniac. But isn't it a bit weird to make a total 360 from the description of a lovable sister?"

"M-maybe it's partly caused by the Kyuubi's chakra. It could be corrupting her thoughts."

"It could be, but why would she even have access to it?" Ino asked.

"I know one guy who had access to it." Naruto said slowly, like he was bringing out a painful memory "His name was Sora."

Four confused gazes looked at him as they couldn't remember that person.

The blonde quickly caught their problem and explained: "He was thy monk from the Fire Temple, who also had wind chakra." Getting no reaction which indicated a clue he continued on "You know, the one idiot who besides me that called Tsunade old and got slammed through a door." Still no reaction "The monk who was the secret weapon of bringing down the village."

Receiving several nods for understanding he continued "You see, he got the left over chakra from the Kyuubi's attack sealed inside him. Maybe that also happened to her and the darker side of the chakra started to cloud her judgement."

"It might be," Sai commended "I wonder how she got it?"

Their conversation was interrupted as the waiter was back with their order. With that their discussion was finished as they enjoyed their meal in silence.

Minutes passed before the distinctive bell of a restaurant rang and a ninja walked in. He walked towards the far right corner and sat down, takin the sixth sandwich in his hand.

"I've gotten some information about her whereabouts." Yamato whispered out as he enjoyed his lunch. "The pharmacist said that a suspicious woman with a bandaged face walked into his shop to buy some makeup. He also added that she was heading northeast." A few nods indicated that they ate the rest of their meal in silence in order to sort out their thoughts.

 **After they paid for their meals, they left towards the northeast.** Jumping from branch to tree they continued onwards.

"T-t-there is an unknown entity 75 meters before us." Hinata informed them.

The team quickly increased their pace as they leaped forwards. Less than a minute later, they saw a man lying limply against a tree with an all too familiar red and black cloak.

"Akatsuki." Ino spat out as she walked up towards the man. The man didn't move and just laid there like a lifeless doll, face turned away from her, the cloak soaked in red. Ino suddenly stopped as one of her medical instincts kicked in 'There's no movement in his chest, could he be?'

She slowly grabbed his face and turned it towards her. The moment she saw the face, she let stumbled backwards with an orange mask in her hands.

"Ino, are you alright?!" Naruto asked/screamed while he ran towards her. He tried to calm her down till he looked at the thing that terrified her, he immediately froze while clutching onto his friend. "No way, it can't be possible…"

The rest of the team also took a good look at the person

The Akatsuki member was lying there lifeless on the ground while his normally masked face was visible for the world. The face was unrecognizable as wicked smile adorned it. The wound was bleeding like a waterfall, the red liquid poured out of the scars as the Kyuubi's chakra was still eating away the skin around it, not only bubbling it off but it was literally removing it like acid.

"How did she accomplish this?" Yamato voiced out his thought. 'A dead Akatsuki member, how in the world did she do this?'

A long paused followed his question as they stared at the dead foe while trying to comprehend was could have happened. The newly added member of the team was the first one to speak up.

"I don't know," Sai admitted "but I've a special body scroll. Maybe Konoha is able to examine it?"

He got the approval to seal up the body. When he was done the body was gone only leaving a blood splatter as reminder. He was storing the scroll up when he heard a loud rumble in the skies up ahead of them.

They looked towards the loud sound and saw dark clouds forming over an abandoned building. Moments later a thunder like creature erupted from the clouds as it descended towards the earth.

The ground shook as it hit the ground. The team was trying their best not to stumble while observing the gigantic clash of power. The earth shook like during an earthquake, loud electric shocks echoed through the forest while panic seemed to rise around them.

Sooner or later the roaring thunder stopped and was replaced by the silence of the speechless gazes of the seven men. The silent was like the calm before the storm.

"What was that?!" Naruto screamed/asked.

"I'm not sure, but whatever it may be we need to investigate it." Their captain answered, while he ran off towards the scene. Trees passed by them when Hinata noticed something.

"G-guys there are four unnatural obstacles on our left side." she informed them. Like a trained unit they ran towards the left while still proceeding forwards.

They slowly slowed done when they reached the location. The normal green coloured grass was red as four bodies laid spread out over the ground. One of them was easily recognisable with his red and black cloak.

"Isn't that Kisame?" nobody dared to answer Sai as the reality of two dead Akatsuki members was lying there in front of them.

"No, not again." Ino pleaded as she collapsed onto her knees. Before her lay four bodies with identical wounds like the few previous casualties "She was here, wasn't she." Fresh blood seeped through the cuts as the disgusting smiles were engraved into their faces.

Her companions weren't in better shape either, all shocked by the abilities of one woman. As the smartest among them Shikamaru took the burden of breaking the ice "Troublesome, but isn't Kisame Itachi's partner?"

His question was left unanswered when the blond friend, the one with a promise to full fill, snapped his neck towards the area, where the gigantic amount of energy was last sighted. Trails of smoke rose from there as the area recovered from the damage, damage that could only be caused by a powerful being…or two twisted brothers.

Like his mind was set on autopilot, he stormed away while screaming his best friend's name.

"Sasuke!"

"Quick," Yamato commanded " Sai store the bodies away, we need to catch up with him."

* * *

 **Alright then…how to say this…**

 **-This will be a semi au.**

 **-Madara and Tobi will never play a roll.**

 **-There won't be a war. Why? Because I don't feel like writing a whole war.**

 **-It will follow the storyline till the Pain arc.**

 **What more to say?**

 **1: I will try to post the next chapter a little faster.**

 **2: Please tell me if there are any typos.**

 **3: reviews are always appreciated.**

 **See you later!**


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